The Memphis Grizzlies closed out their shock series defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in game 6 on Friday night to complete the first round of the playoffs. They will open up the conference semi-finals with game 1 at Oklahoma City, but few eyes outside of the involved will be looking their way on Sunday. There aren't too many household names lined up in that game, although that may well change in years to come for these teams on the rise. Instead, later on Sunday comes a game featuring almost nothing but big names. While Oklahoma are near unanimous favourites to take out the Grizzlies, opinion is very divided on the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics match-up.
While much of the press surrounding the season, and it's "Decision" origins, would seem to portray the series as a team of champions vs a champion team style argument, that clearly sells the Celtics short. With Pierce, Garnett and Rondo in their side, they are clearly not short of champions. Th match-ups versus the triumvirate of Wade, Bosh and LeBron James have eyes focused for plenty of basketball reasons, but plenty will be watching, wanting the Heat to fall. The English soccer fans that decry the spending of Manchester City and Chelsea, or Real Madrid, the baseball fans that despise Yankees' payroll, the Test cricket fans who hate the IPL will all sympathize with the NAB fans watching only to see the Heat lose. For those of us more neutral in such matters, we can sit back and hope for epic sporting contest between champions of all stripes. LeBron James might have the most to prove, but amidst all the hype around his battle with the Celtics, it's worth remembering it's just the conference semis.
Which brings us to the other four teams. The LA Lakers stalled in mid-air before recovering power to close out their series 4-2 against New Orleans, and they will start as strong favourites against the Dallas Mavericks. As defending champions, and featuring the not insignificant talents of Kobe Bryant and his supporting cast, the winners of the Heat-Celtics match-up shouldn't be popping any premature corks.
In the last pairing, the Chicago Bulls will start as strong favourites against the Atlanta Hawks. the Bulls came into the playoffs with the best league record, but their first round playoff series win over the Pacers was far from emphatic. Carlos Boozer struggled throughout the series, and Derrick Rose will correspondingly carry plenty of pressure on his shoulders heading into the match-up with the Hawks. No one expected Atlanta to get past Orlando, and Chicago will be playing plenty of attention to how the Hawks managed to shut down the Magic despite some still pretty decent numbers for Dwight Howard.
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